About Taunya English

WHYY Senior Health Writer Taunya English tracks government policies and community efforts to overhaul the places where people live, work and play.

She's a contributor to The Pulse, WHYY's weekly radio show on health, science and innovation news.

Taunya created the series "Designs on Health" with support from the Dennis A. Hunt Fund for Health Journalism. It's a look at the ways zoning and neighborhood influence wellbeing.

Taunya is a member of "Health Care in the States," a journalism collaborative between National Public Radio and Kaiser Health News, which works to expand reporting on the implementation of the Affordable Care Act.

Taunya produced the series "In the Gap." Across 12 installments of news and conversation, WHYY partnered with WURD to explore the divide that separates African Americans from better health.

Taunya's radio work airs during Morning Edition, All Things Considered and NewsWorks Tonight. Her television stories appear on Delaware's newsmagazine, First.

Before joining WHYY, Taunya led statehouse news coverage for Public Radio Capitol News in Harrisburg, Pa. For three years, she worked as a freelance health reporter for Baltimore's National Public Radio affiliate, WYPR.

Taunya began her journalism career as a newspaper reporter in Northern California, then moved on to become a science writer in Washington, DC. She holds a master's degree from Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism.

Next month, the much-talked-about state-run health exchanges will be up and running. Those are the online marketplaces where Americans can shop around for health insurance, set up as part of the Affordable Care Act. The law is — to say the least — complex, and our health and science team has been answering questions about the healthcare law throughout the summer. There are still plenty of misconceptions about exactly what the law does and doesn't do. Tonight we talk to Lori Robertson of FactCheck.org to debunk some of those myths.

Up for discussion:

• A promise from President Obama that if you like the health care plan you have, you get to keep it.

• A claim from Republicans that part-time workers are struggling to find full-time jobs because of the law.

• Claims from the Right that Obamacare is a job killer.

• Opposing claims that "Consumers will pay less for health insurance when they buy through health care exchanges" or "Premiums will skyrocket for consumers."

• Variations on the idea that the government is taking over health care and the government will tell your doctor what treatments you can have.

• The notion that Congress and congressional staff are exempt from the law.

• Claims that the law includes forced home inspections by the government.

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